My layover to New York deboarded 65 minutes late, and the initial itinerary gave me an hour and twenty minutes to make my connection. Uh oh.
Everyone knew they had 15-20 minutes to get to the opposite end of the airport and make it through US customs. Half the plane had to wait and let those with short layovers deboard, so all disembarking had similar time restrictions. But no one was running, or even walking with urgency.
Why? Some might have had too much luggage, or lacked the health, or felt the time was so tight there was no point in trying. But another one of the reasons was likely that no one else was running. Social pressure can lead people not to take action, even if they know the action would be in their best interest.
I felt the social pressure too, but I ran. I made it to the gate as the flight attendant was on the phone being told to bump me. I was sweating when I got to my seat, but I got what I wanted; I don’t think anyone else did.
We feel social pressure because it was evolutionarily useful to work in groups for survival. But it isn’t always useful now. Our limbic system can be an antiquated gauge for the consequence of deviating from the group in the modern world.
If you ever find yourself in a situation where you feel the invisible strings of social pressure pulling you, it might be a good time to ask yourself, ‘should I be running?’.